Discrimination in schools is a big deal and several concerned Ames residents have organized an open forum to generate discussion on the discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender youths in Iowa.

“Making Our Schools Safe for GLBT Students” will be moderated by Mary Sawyer, associate professor of religious studies, along with panelists the Rev. David Ruhe, Carolyn Cutrona, Kathy Collins, Nick Pace and Emily Simmering.

The forum will begin at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Ames Municipal Auditorium in City Hall, 515 Clark Ave.

The joint goal of the panelists is to dispel ongoing myths about GLBT youths and to address issues ranging from laws to religious beliefs revolving around sexual orientation.

The panelists will also present solutions for how to assure the safety of GLBT youths as they attend school.

The goal of the forum is to ensure GLBT students have an equal opportunity to learn and achieve, said Cutrona, professor of psychology.

“I am the parent of a lesbian 20-year-old who I raised here in Iowa, and part of what I’m going to be discussing is how important the schools are in making students decide whether they feel OK or whether they decide they should feel uncomfortable about their sexual orientation,” she said.

Cutrona, interim director of the ISU Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, said she hopes representatives of school systems will attend the forum and realize there are simple things they can do to make schools safer.

Sawyer said there have been incidents of discrimination against homosexual teens in our area. “In Gilbert, for example, a young male student was being harassed in a number of ways, and the school didn’t respond in a way that we felt they needed to,” Sawyer said.

The Gilbert High School student Sawyer was referring to is Jerryn Johnston, now a freshman at the University of Iowa. Johnston, along with his mother Sue Ellen Tuttle, communications specialist for the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, challenged the Gilbert School Board last April to include sexual orientation in its non-discrimination policy.

Tuttle said she supported the idea of having an open forum to address discriminatory behavior against gay and lesbian youths.

“I am behind this idea 100 percent,” she said. “I think there is a lot schools can do that’s not being done. We need dialogue.”

Tuttle said after asking for sexual orientation to be added to the Gilbert anti-discrimination policy last spring, the proposal was not even discussed at the school board meeting; it was simply refused.

“I’m looking to see if anyone from the Gilbert school board attends,” Tuttle said. “I know they know about it, but it wasn’t even mentioned in the school newsletter.”

Tuttle is hopeful that a public forum will create some improvement in GLBT students’ lives.

“It’s an opportunity for discussion, and that’s the way progress is going to be made,” she said.